Senior Sales Engineer

primer.ai•Washington, DC

About The Position

Primer exists to make the world a safer place. We do this by providing trusted decision-ready AI to the world's most critical organizations. Our software enables leaders, operators, and analysts to better understand the changing world around us in real time and make informed decisions when the stakes are high. Primer has offices in San Francisco, Pasadena, CA and Arlington, VA. For more information, please visit https://primer.ai/ As a Senior Sales Engineer, you’ll be the technical partner to Primer’s go-to-market team. You’ll work closely with Account Executives, Advisors, Partners, and Marketing to find, shape, and win opportunities across government. Your main job is to understand each prospect’s mission: their operational challenges, their workflows, and the outcomes they’re responsible for. Then you’ll show how Primer’s solution applies directly to that mission. You’ll lead the technical side of the sales cycle, from early discovery through demos, prototypes, and proofs of concept. You’ll turn complex mission requirements into clear, compelling solutions that help customers see and experience Primer’s value before they buy. You can take in new technical concepts quickly and spot obstacles early, so pursuits move forward and our teams stay aligned and credible with government stakeholders.

Requirements

5–7+ years in sales engineering, solutions architecture, or customer-facing technical roles, ideally selling enterprise software or AI solutions into the Intelligence Community
Direct experience supporting IC agencies and elements, such as CIA, NSA, DIA, NGA, NRO, ODNI, or the military service intelligence components
Strong understanding of intelligence missions and analytic workflows, including the intelligence cycle, all-source analysis, OSINT, and how analysts collect, process, exploit, and disseminate information
Experience with how the IC buys technology: acquisition pathways such as OTAs, SBIRs, and IDIQs; contract vehicles; budget and program cycles; and moving capabilities from pilot to enterprise adoption
Ability to tie analytic and mission outcomes to technical solutions, and to explain how AI improves analyst speed, scale, and confidence while respecting analytic tradecraft standards
Ability to explain complex AI concepts to analysts, engineers, mission owners, and program leadership
AI and technical knowledge
Hands-on experience with LLMs and agentic AI, including multi-agent workflows, tool use, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and evaluating agent performance and reliability
Solid grounding in NLP, including named-entity recognition (NER), entity resolution, and clustering, especially on multilingual and unstructured intelligence data
Experience with graph databases (e.g., Neo4j) and with building or using knowledge graphs to model entities, relationships, networks, and events
Experience deploying into IC environments, including classified networks (JWICS, SIPRNet), IC cloud environments (C2E), on-premise, and air-gapped systems
Experience with Docker and Elastic
Understanding of IC security and accreditation requirements, including ICD 503, Authority to Operate (ATO) processes, FedRAMP, IL5/6, and FIPS

Nice To Haves

Active TS/SCI clearance; Full-Scope or CI Polygraph strongly preferred
Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a technical field, or equivalent practical experience
Prior service as an intelligence analyst, targeter, or technical officer within the IC or military intelligence

Responsibilities

Enable customers to see the art of the possible by relating Primer’s technical capabilities to mission outcomes.
Represent the technical voice of the customer within your account team to develop strategies that enhance mission outcomes for our customers.
Support the ideation and implementation of solutions and feature sets for the customers while partnering with product and engineering to develop and deliver.
Partner with product and engineering at Primer to identify and prioritize new features and algorithmic development based on customer engagement and feedback.